La Hogue: pursuit turned damage into destruction

The French withdrawal was hampered by wind, tide, and anchors too weak for the local tidal races after cost-cutting by the naval ministry. With Cherbourg unfortified and Tourville's flagship badly damaged, the fleet scattered along several escape routes, including a hazardous passage through the Alderney Race guided by a local pilot. The pursuers lacked an officer with comparable local knowledge, a weakness later British charting of the French coast would address. Ships without anchors had to beach at Cherbourg and La Hogue, while other detachments made circuitous escapes back to Brest. Anglo-Dutch longboats, shore parties, and fireships destroyed the stranded vessels, turning pursuit and littoral action into the battle's decisive material result.